Birthday Celebration

Hey there. I've been MIA this week. I was working like a mad man and then on Thursday, celebrated my 27th birthday. What does oldman river do on his birthday? Well I spent the day with my girlfriend at The Getty Center, had dinner with family and saw a movie with some friends. Yeah, party animal I know.

b-day @ The Getty. Gangsta

I've never been too found of birthdays. In fact I used to loathe them. I gotta say this year's celebration was pretty rad.

The Herb Ritts exhibition at The Getty was awesome. Something Jay would love for sure. My girlfriend spoiled me with a bunch of dvd's from Amoeba and then as we walked across the street to catch our movie we encountered a special someone in the lobby...Natalie Portman. Yes, the Female Obsession honoree from February 2012, Natalie Portman in the flesh.

I've encountered my fair share of random musicians and celebrities before, usually saying something casual like "hey" or just ignoring them all together and letting them do their thing, but seeing Portman standing 3 feet away from me was straight up insane. I was paralyzed. My usually silver tongue turned to mush and I went into Wayne Campbell mode, "WE'RE NOT WORTHY."

She was with her husband and they seemed to be running late to their movie. I wanted to call her Matilda/Padme/Jane/Nina, ask her about securing the rights to all those Metallica songs for the film Hesher she produced, inform her that I saw Black Swan at this same theater two year earlier, and show her my driver's license as proof that it was actually my birthday and if she could please just acknowledge my existence. I wanted to do all those things, but I choked. As we stood inline for snacks I managed to ask "What are you guys seeing?" as they passed by. Her husband answered with, "The Campaign..."

And like that, she was gone. I was kind of amazed Natalie Portman was rushing off to go see The Campaign of all movies. The ticket guy agreed. "We can't judge her" he said as we exchanged, OMFG I just saw Natalie Portman in person and she looked damn amazing in those giant heels banter with one another.

So yeah. Happy Birthday to me.